How the Dharma Ended Up in the "Eastern Country": Korean Monks in the Chinese Buddhist Imaginaire during the Tang and Early Song
This chapter studies the way Chinese Buddhist monks looked at their Korean counterparts, and how this perception of a Buddhist "other" changed over time from the beginning of the 6th to the late 10th centuries. This was the period when Buddhist exchanges between China and Korea were the mo...
| Published in: | Dynamics in the history of religions |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2018
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| In: |
Dynamics in the history of religions
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| Further subjects: | B
Religion in Asien
B Asia B Religion B Asien-Studien B Religionswissenschaften B History |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This chapter studies the way Chinese Buddhist monks looked at their Korean counterparts, and how this perception of a Buddhist "other" changed over time from the beginning of the 6th to the late 10th centuries. This was the period when Buddhist exchanges between China and Korea were the most intensive. Throughout this period, a vast number of monks from peninsular kingdoms travelled to China and beyond; some eventually returned to their home country, but many stayed, and some left their marks on Chinese Buddhism. Given the lack of early Korean sources, much of our information about the biographies of these intrepid monks stems from Chinese biographic collections. So far, however, insufficient attention has been paid to the fact that these biographies were shaped by the ideals and motivations of their authors. Notably, Daoxuan, author of a seminal collection of monastic biographies, projected his own ideals of the observance of the Vinaya and doctrinal learning on the biographies of Wŏngwang and Chajang. The way he creatively reimagined these biographies has been accepted in Korean scholarship and continues to influence even present-day perceptions. While later biographies do not show such a strong auctorial hand, they equally tend to inscribe Chinese monastic ideals or other motivations on the Korean material. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Dynamics in the history of religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/9789004366152_010 |